1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to web fed rotary printing presses, in particular to web fed rotary printing presses for printing newspapers.
2. State of the Art
In today's commercially available web fed rotary printing presses, e.g., for producing newspapers or commercial printed products, the printing units are arranged at fixed locations in the press room and cannot be moved relative to each other in vertical directions. In huge presses such as those used for newspaper production, a plurality of printing units are arranged one above the other for printing on one or more paper webs which pass through the printing units in a substantially vertical direction. Due to the fixed arrangement of the printing units and a limited amount of space available in a press room, the printing units are not easily accessible to the press operators. As a result, substantial amounts of time are required to exchange printing plates and printing blankets and to repair and maintain the printing units.
European Patent No. EP 0 749 369 B1 describes a multi-color web fed rotary printing press, having four blanket-to-blanket printing units which are arranged one above the other and which can be separated horizontally in such a way that a press operator can enter the space provided between the blanket cylinders to exchange the printing blankets.